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Ode to Canal Street

If you follow TC on Instagram, you know how I’ve been admiring the ragged, unrenovated parts of Canal Street lately. They feel like New York of yore to me, and as the street changes,* its distinctiveness is disappearing. That’s progress, of course, and not unwelcome, but I’ve been making an effort to capture the street as it is now, in all its graffitied splendor. (*That post predates the news that Paris Baguette is also opening on Canal.)

When I was on the Tribeca Committee we had a public member whose business was creating side walkcafes and he kept pushing and pushing to “clean” up Canal Street so people could sit outside amid the gas fumes. We fought him at every turn hoping to keep Canal St the last frontier of old manufacturing downtown, of old artist supply stores and army and navy surplus. Now even our committee is kaput. Hopefully these photos will not be all that’s left of Canals gritty past. But we are grateful to have them! Keep shooting!